


20 Questions

by desperationandgin



Category: Lost
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-03
Updated: 2013-08-03
Packaged: 2017-12-22 07:27:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/910530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desperationandgin/pseuds/desperationandgin





	20 Questions

It’s the sort of night that’s become easy for them. Juliet cooks dinner for the guys, reads for a while so that they can clean up, then they all play some sort of game. It’s a way to pass the time and usually ends with Miles and James as the last two standing, battling it out. When that happens, she sits with Jin at the kitchen table and helps him with his English. Inevitably though, someone gets tired, but never Juliet or James first. They pretend to be absorbed in books until Miles and Jin both go to sleep and have been down for a while.  
  
Then, it’s to the fridge for beer and directly onto the front porch. They sit side by side, so close that their legs touch. This started back on the beach when the freighter blew up, the two of them drinking in silence. It’s morphed now into a sort of question and answer session. He always asks first, and the longer they drink the more interesting their answers become. They never invite anyone else. Tonight is no exception as she opens one of the beers and sighs a little, leaning back against the porch railing.  
  
"You wanna go first tonight?"  
  
She’s caught off guard by that and looks over with a smirk. "Well, technically that would have been your first question."  
  
He smirks back. "You know what I meant."  
  
She does, but the problem is, she’s read his file. A long time ago she read all about the man he killed in Australia, about how he lived his life conning women and spent time in jail for it. She knows about his parents, knows how he got the scar on his arm. She knows it all, so she’s quiet for a moment. "Do you know that I’ve read everything there is about you?"  
  
He looks at her. "So you don’t have  _any_  questions?"   
  
Juliet shakes her head, then changes her mind. "Tell me something that wasn’t in there. Surprise me, James."  
  
They sit in silence for a long time, long enough for them to each need a second beer before he comes up with something. "I got a daughter back home."  
  
She looks at him in shock, not blinking, just staring. "Excuse me?"  
  
"Clementine. She’s...hell, I don’t know how old she is now. Never knew her birthday. Never met her."  
  
Juliet’s clearly shocked, and she drains half of her second beer before she can say anything else. "That, James, I didn’t know."  
  
"I didn’t even know, found out while I was in jail." He’s peeling the label off of his DHARMA issued amber lager, not bothering to look at her. "What the fuck kind of name is Clementine, anyway?" He'd have never picked that.  
  
"She’ll be comin’ round the mountain?" Juliet offers, and she can see his ghost of a smile before she looks down at her hands. "You don’t strike me as the kind of person who’d ever want kids."  
  
"I don’t. I didn’t." He sighs. "I don’t know. My childhood ain’t exactly something I look back on fondly."  
  
She turns to look at him, staring until he turns his head to look back at her. "That doesn’t mean your life has to be the same way. Who knows, you might be a great dad."  
  
"Real good job I’m doin’ so far. Haven’t even met her."  
  
"You’re on a deserted island in the seventies. That’s not your fault."  
  
"Yeah, well, I jumped out of the damn helicopter."  
  
"So that everyone else would have a chance."  
  
"Shit, Juliet don’t make excuses for me. I didn’t do it for them."  
  
They sit in silence a while longer. She finishes her third beer and opens a fourth. "You gonna ask me anything?"  
  
He’s leaning back on the steps now. "What about you? I don’t know what you left behind when you came here." He knows that she came voluntarily only to be told she couldn’t leave. Knows she has a sister, but that’s it.  
  
"Just Rachel."  
  
"No kids?"  
  
"I’m divorced."  
  
"That don’t mean there’s no kids."  
  
"There aren’t any."  
  
The way she says it gives him pause, and he looks over at her. She’s hiding her face in a sip of beer, so he waits until he can see more. She’s frustratingly passive, just like always. "You ever want there to be? Kids, I mean."  
  
She snorts a little. "With my ex-husband? No thank you. That would have been a disaster."  
  
"Do you ever want one?" he clarifies, before thinking that she’s stuck just like him.  
  
"With who, James? In case you haven’t noticed..." she gestures around with her bottle at their surroundings.  
  
"Hey, I think Phil’s got a crush on you."  
  
That makes her snicker with laughter, and she’s feeling a little more loose as the alcohol starts to warm her up. She sighs again, squinting out into the dark to see the flickering of lightening bugs. "I spent my entire life helping other women get pregnant. Never stopped to think about if I wanted to. Didn’t have time. Knew that I wouldn’t have any help from my husband."  
  
James figures that’s the most she’s ever really told him about her, and he commits it to memory. She wants to have a kid. Or she did before she got stuck. That much is pretty damn obvious. "You never know Blondie; maybe you’ll get off this rock in the right time and get what you want."  
  
Juliet looks over at him, blinking slowly as she studies him leaning back against the porch steps like he doesn’t have a care in the world. "Maybe," she says quietly before finishing her beer and standing. "I’m turning in. It’s an early day at work tomorrow."  
  
He gets to his feet next to her, and she reaches out her hand to help him up. When his hand is in hers, he tugs her closer, looking at her seriously. "Hey. Doesn’t matter what that jackass Edmund or...Ben ever told you. You don’t owe nobody nothin’. You deserve to be happy."  
  
That’s the most sincere thing he’s ever said to her (other than having her back), and she swallows a little. All she can do is nod once before she’s disappearing inside for her room.  
  
He sighs, running a hand down his face as he watches her go. He has no idea what this conversation was. But it was something.


End file.
